"Whispering Bones" is a extended piece performed in Hovden, Norway in September 2007. It strikes me as being more improvisational and less composed because at times it seems a bit aimless and confused. Also, even though it is not a particularly harsh trip or heavy on volume, the mix often seems like it is in the red. Maybe that static was intentional? It's difficult to tell honestly. Anyway... this is a cold journey. All of these Norse-folk who lock themselves in cabins in the cold making electro-acoustic music are interesting because even though the sounds vary greatly between them there is always a strong sense of environment. Between the plinking and plunking of strings and the humming feedback it just sounds downright chilly! Ice dangling from the nose and shit, ya know? Some pots clanking here and there remind me of some old man with one of those hand-knit sweaters with a caribou pattern on it or something. He comes walking out of the house, shivering but stoic. The fog drifts from his slightly parted mouth as he pulls out the icepick. His husky comes trotting up the hill with him. The dog barks a couple times as the old man raises his tool above his head to crack a reindeer over the head! Blood squirts all over the snow real Fargo style and this old man has dinner for weeks. Seriously though, I don't think Norwegians kill domestic (or wild) reindeer for sustenance and I don't think that Sindre Bjerga, Jan M. Iversen and Steffan de Turck were mutilating animals while they spent the weekend recording these sessions. But in the dark weird audio world of A Vibrant Struggle the imagery might make sense. Despite the recording quality (which may be intentional?) and some needed editing, something is very beautiful about this sort of cold primitive brutality up in the mountains alone in a cabin. 7/10 -- Ryan Emmett (10 December, 2008)